Sports

Monfils wins Qatar Open in 4th appearance in final

DOHA, Qatar (AP) Gael Monfils won the Qatar Open title on his fourth appearance in the final with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Andrey Rublev of Russia on Saturday.

The 46th-ranked Monfils, a former top-10 player, lost previous finals at the tournament to Roger Federer in 2006, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2012, and Rafael Nadal in 2014.

”I’ve been very close and finally I get it,” Monfils said after winning his seventh career title.

Monfils was playing in his first tournament since a right-knee injury forced him to retire during his U.S. Open third-round match in September.

”I had a long rest and I’m a lot stronger for 2018,” Monfils said. ”I didn’t expect to win the first tournament, but I’m happy I did.”

The 39th-ranked Rublev nervously rushed on many shots against the more experienced Monfils.

Rublev countered his 21 winners with an equal number of unforced errors, while Monfils posted 29 winners to only 10 unforced errors in the one-hour match.

”I think I was completed tired today,” Rublev said. ”We played only one hour and the match was almost without chances for me.”

Monfils broke his opponent’s serve to go ahead 3-1 in both sets. The Frenchman faced two break points in the match, but saved both which came in the fifth game of the second set.

In the first set, Monfils broke Rublev a second time in the final game. In the second set, he had to serve out the match in the ninth game.

Monfils reached the final without hitting a ball in the semifinals when top-seeded Dominic Thiem withdrew from the tournament because of illness.

Original Article

[contf] [contfnew]

Fox Sports

[contfnewc] [contfnewc]

Related Articles

Sports

CAF President Ahmad Ahmad banned for FIVE years

africanews– The head of Confederation of African Football (CAF), Ahmad Ahmad, has...

Sports

Semanya embarks on last-ditch legal battle

Lawyer for the South African two-time Olympic champion said Tuesday, they will...

Sports

Spain vs Germany: 6-0 Scores in Competitive Match

Spain vs Germany: On Tuesday, Sparkling Spain smashed hapless Germany 6-0 at...

Sports

Ex-Chelsea manager Antonio Conte set to take charge at Inter Milan

Former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is set to be appointed as the...